Korg Wavedrum!
Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:58 pm
Just got the wavedrum... so far it fits under the "cool and sort of usable toy" category, with the major downpoint being that it doesn't output MIDI.
The thing is as straight forward as could be. It's a hand drum, and the sound from the head drives the DSP instruments. So, whether you beat it with a stick, or slap it with you hands makes a difference in the sound. Cool.
But, it doesn't output MIDI so you're stuck to the built in modules. Overall, the sounds center around very ethnic sounds.. mostly very droning and indian sounding. Lots of the patches sound like just a simple membrane drum with a sample or two thrown in to make it interesting.
I haven't quite figured out what it going on mechanically, but it does have these sensors:
1. membrane transmits audio to drive DSP
2. center of the membrane is pressure sensitive
3. rims also transmits audio to drive DSP
What puzzles me is how the membrane sound is used. For example, in a conga patch, even if play a real slap, or a mute slap, that sound doesn't really carry across into the result. (it's just a regular open hit) The strange thing is that the raw sound is fed to output too.. so when I heel toe, it hear the heel toe sound, but also a faint open hit sound too, which is coming from the dsp. So, while some techniques may carry through, most won't. And ultimately, it's built so you can get somewhat of a good tone even though you can't perform all the basic techniques. For the conga, hitting the middle part amounts to a open hit, and hitting the outer parts closer to the rim generates a slap.
Another thing that they forgot to take into account is the physical elasticity of the membrane. While the membrane can be struck with a drumstick, it's not tight enough to cause good bounce, and so rolls are almost impossible to do. Maybe I just need to "tune" it, as it has tuning screws and make the membrane tighter. But anyway, they have a pretty cool repinique instrument (I happen to play a bit of repinique), but the basic techniques were impossible to do because the stick wouldn't bounce enough.
Now, as far as overall coolness is concerned, this thing is the coolest instrument I've seen since the Nord Modular came out. (scope doesn't count since it's a card) The wavedrum blurs the line between analogue instrument and digital. It's sort of like an electric guitar.. it's got pickups, except the sound doesn't drive a speaker, it drives DSP patches. It even has strange percs that are specific to acoustic instruments, such as 2 instruments not sounding the same, or changing heads changes the sound.. etc. A lot of the detail in performance is lost, and is "rounded off" into the nearest good sounding dsp "mode" (slap, open, mute, etc) but the tone and variation caused by the analogue source is something that could shape the direction of digital sounds in the near future.
There are some nit picky issues though. The built in reverb is bad. Quite bad. The raw sound is pumped through the reverb in most of the patches, and the sharp transients causes a very metallic ring, or sounds like a room reverb with too much high end. (sort of like slap back echo) Maybe it's a cheap ER algo, I'm not sure. But nothing that can't be fixed by some patch editing. (meaning, total removal of irritating effect)
Another more realistic problem is that hitting the membrane is pretty loud. Which means, you need to turn your monitors way up, so you can hear the tabla or whatever patch you've loaded, over your membrane hitting sounds. This can end up being pretty loud, and so it seems like the only real way of using this thing without getting in trouble is to use audio in (for your tracks), and then monitor with headphones. But do keep in mind that the membrane makes sounds, and is not a silencing material like rubber drumheads.
It would have been nice if it output MIDI because it could be used to program beats, or use external sound sources. (like storm drum) Hey, but you know, the thing is portable, more reactive than any digital instrument, and it's extremely fun to play. As a whole, it's just a very attractive product, there's no denying that.
The thing is as straight forward as could be. It's a hand drum, and the sound from the head drives the DSP instruments. So, whether you beat it with a stick, or slap it with you hands makes a difference in the sound. Cool.
But, it doesn't output MIDI so you're stuck to the built in modules. Overall, the sounds center around very ethnic sounds.. mostly very droning and indian sounding. Lots of the patches sound like just a simple membrane drum with a sample or two thrown in to make it interesting.
I haven't quite figured out what it going on mechanically, but it does have these sensors:
1. membrane transmits audio to drive DSP
2. center of the membrane is pressure sensitive
3. rims also transmits audio to drive DSP
What puzzles me is how the membrane sound is used. For example, in a conga patch, even if play a real slap, or a mute slap, that sound doesn't really carry across into the result. (it's just a regular open hit) The strange thing is that the raw sound is fed to output too.. so when I heel toe, it hear the heel toe sound, but also a faint open hit sound too, which is coming from the dsp. So, while some techniques may carry through, most won't. And ultimately, it's built so you can get somewhat of a good tone even though you can't perform all the basic techniques. For the conga, hitting the middle part amounts to a open hit, and hitting the outer parts closer to the rim generates a slap.
Another thing that they forgot to take into account is the physical elasticity of the membrane. While the membrane can be struck with a drumstick, it's not tight enough to cause good bounce, and so rolls are almost impossible to do. Maybe I just need to "tune" it, as it has tuning screws and make the membrane tighter. But anyway, they have a pretty cool repinique instrument (I happen to play a bit of repinique), but the basic techniques were impossible to do because the stick wouldn't bounce enough.
Now, as far as overall coolness is concerned, this thing is the coolest instrument I've seen since the Nord Modular came out. (scope doesn't count since it's a card) The wavedrum blurs the line between analogue instrument and digital. It's sort of like an electric guitar.. it's got pickups, except the sound doesn't drive a speaker, it drives DSP patches. It even has strange percs that are specific to acoustic instruments, such as 2 instruments not sounding the same, or changing heads changes the sound.. etc. A lot of the detail in performance is lost, and is "rounded off" into the nearest good sounding dsp "mode" (slap, open, mute, etc) but the tone and variation caused by the analogue source is something that could shape the direction of digital sounds in the near future.
There are some nit picky issues though. The built in reverb is bad. Quite bad. The raw sound is pumped through the reverb in most of the patches, and the sharp transients causes a very metallic ring, or sounds like a room reverb with too much high end. (sort of like slap back echo) Maybe it's a cheap ER algo, I'm not sure. But nothing that can't be fixed by some patch editing. (meaning, total removal of irritating effect)
Another more realistic problem is that hitting the membrane is pretty loud. Which means, you need to turn your monitors way up, so you can hear the tabla or whatever patch you've loaded, over your membrane hitting sounds. This can end up being pretty loud, and so it seems like the only real way of using this thing without getting in trouble is to use audio in (for your tracks), and then monitor with headphones. But do keep in mind that the membrane makes sounds, and is not a silencing material like rubber drumheads.
It would have been nice if it output MIDI because it could be used to program beats, or use external sound sources. (like storm drum) Hey, but you know, the thing is portable, more reactive than any digital instrument, and it's extremely fun to play. As a whole, it's just a very attractive product, there's no denying that.